'Meat' the Environment

‘Meat’ the Environment
2-26-09
Chef Wendell

Clearly, personal and environmental stewardship is subjective. The Queen of England has “dominion” over her subjects, but that doesn’t mean she can eat them, but I digress.
As a proud Ambassador for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, I look to Director, Dr. Neal Bernard for guidance. His philosophy along with heart disease experts Pritikin and Dean Ornish, urge total abstinence from all animal foods in order to ‘steer’ clear of premature heart-related bereavement.

Population studies illuminate that death due to atherosclerosis is absolutely connected to red meat consumption. Atherosclerosis is the buildup of deposits of fatty substances, cholesterol, cellular waste products, calcium and other substances (plaque) in the inner lining of an artery.
One study showed that mortality due to coronary heart disease was 50% lower among those who consumed an average of 30 grams of fish per day compared with those who ate meat daily. Meat eaters in this study had a mind-blowing 300% increase in their risk of coronary heart disease. I lovingly remind my evolving friends that there is no fiber in red meat, potatoes, white bread, booze and cigarettes.

Heart disease authorities suggest in preventing Atherosclerosis humans must ditch meat and dairy then embrace gifts of the sea. Pass the blubber, please! The Mayo Clinic says that the omega-3 fatty acids in nuts and fish are excellent heart food.

Atherosclerosis is the process in which deposits of fatty substances, cholesterol, cellular waste products, calcium and other substances build up in the inner lining of an artery. It’s a widespread disease where plaque loiters inside your arteries; blood vessels that carry oxygen-rich blood to your heart and other vital parts of your body.

Even though my cherished carnivorous friends are always grasping for reasons to carry on with their Midwestern habits of eating, they respect my personal decision to avoid animal products; live and let live.

Even though they’re aware of the ‘unhappy ending’ linked with eating dead animals, my friends struggle switching to a new lifestyle lacking the ubiquitous dinner table icon. They’d be perfectly content to eat meat three times a day, 7-days a week.

It required me smooching the Grim Reaper square on the lips in 1988 before my mind opened. I also grew aware that there was much more to add to the equation. I was clueless in Indianapolis until I researched the dire environmental consequences of over-the-top meat consumption that results in major, worldwide environmental and humanitarian issues.

A summary report from the LEAD (Livestock, Environment and Development Initiative) which is supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations states:
Livestock account for 9% of all human activity related to carbon dioxide emissions.
From local to global, the livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems.

It roughly takes 60, 108, 168 and 229 pounds of water to produce a ‘pound’ of potatoes, wheat, corn and rice respectively. Beef however, requires 12,000 gallons of water per pound. Yikes!
80% of heavenly streams and rippling riparian habitats in the western US have been negatively impacted by livestock grazing.

Farm raised catfish, salmon and shrimp are contaminated by concentrations of their own excrement, farm chemical runoff, manufacturing waste and delicious heavy metals.
A 2006 study at the

University of Chicago concluded that a person switching from a typical American diet to a plant-based, whole foods diet with the same number of calories would prevent the emission of 1485 kg of carbon dioxide, which exceeds that of you switching from a Toyota Camry to the hybrid Toyota Prius. That’s encouraging news!

There is nothing in the Bible that justifies destruction of our earthly environment and entire species of wildlife and torment and kills billions of animals every year.

The generous Cosmos imparts a reverence for life. The loving Creator could not help but be appalled by the way our animal buddies are treated today. We can do better.

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Iatrogeny: Medical Genocide?

SST-The ‘Unpatriotic’ Cost of Sickness
3-23-09

Does the food you serve to loved ones feed or deplete family health equity? Are you a true American who’s stopped seeking emergency medical attention because it has become too pricey? Have you stopped taking critical meds due to exaggerated, aberrant costs?
Red, White and Blue to-the-bones citizens of this great country are fed up with the situation which they’re refereeing to as down-right unpatriotic. Global terrorism has been labeled the greatest threat to the American way of life, although conventional medical practices kill more Americans than terrorists. Is it time to embrace a healthier diet? You bet your bippy.
A generation ago, an implicit doctor-patient personal bond of trust prevailed. Because of their failure to prevent disease, this ‘trust’ has been diminished. More than ever, we must embrace a proactive-prevention mentality to endure the onslaught of chronic disease and obesity caused by the toxic ‘Western’ diet of foods which prevent the holy temple from healing in the fashion the cosmos designed. There is simply too much irrefutable information indicting our insane, convenience-driven American diet. We deserve better. I’d do anything to stay out of a hospital.
Ever heard of Iatrogeny? Iatrogeny, defined by Mosby’s Medical Dictionary, calls it ‘a condition caused by medical personnel or procedures or through exposure to the environment of a healthcare facility.’ Twice, I dodged the bullet after a physician dropped the ball. They are, after all, human.
If you’re fiercely rationalizing your Constitutional right to chomp down unctuous cow burgers, pork ribs, fried bits and Twinkies and still need motivation to stop; chomp down these no-so-tasty ‘medical’ facts from The Journal of The American Medical Association, (2000;284:94)
12,000 deaths / year from unnecessary surgery
7,000 deaths / year from medication errors in hospitals
20,000 deaths / year other errors in hospitals
80,000 deaths / year from nosocomial infarctions in hospitals
106,000 deaths / year from adverse effects of medication
That’s 225,000 deaths per year are caused from iatrogenic causes; the third leading cause of death in the US, second only to heart disease and cancer. Are whole, unprocessed foods beginning to make you salivate? I earnestly hope so.
Sad but true, a simple visit to the ER, family physician or pharmacist has become a budget-busting, most often unexpected capital expenditure. Don’t expect a floral bouquet from Big Pharma. If they had their way, all vitamins, whole foods and Holistic medicines would be abolished. They prosper when citizens suffer from chronic disease. It’s a lucrative business.
When I speak around the state, I listen to people who just discovered they have cancer or heart disease admit they at last, have an open mind to food as preventive medicine. From the conclusive science, corporate America is killing us slowly with their fries. The Non-homoeopathic species of medicine we’ve blindly trusted does little or nothing to prevent disease. That would make too much sense. Instead, they wait till the horse is out of the barn before closing the door. Therefore, solutions are written in blood.
Protecting your health equity becomes a financial imperative. Many families live one paycheck from poverty or homelessness. Chronic disease and prescription costs could spell instant disaster.
Perhaps now is the ideal time to open your mouth and mind to the delicious, healing and preventive world of plant food as medicine; the way God and Hippocrates designed. If we lovingly embrace this concept, chefs / home cooks are indeed, the doctors of the future. Just like grandma and grandpa. If it was good enough for them, then it’s good enough for my family, too.
Let’s go back to pre-industrial Revolution tactics; cooking from scratch, canning, setting up victory gardens and storing fruits and veggies in the root cellar. People in other countries scratch their heads and consider Americans imprudent to consume such vast amounts dead, processed foods. They’re befuddled why we eat ‘machine cuisine’, instead of fresh, sun blest plant foods. We suffer needlessly.
If we know certain foods cause disease and damage our precious holy temple, then stop consuming them. It really could not be simpler. Make one change at a time; get used to it, then go on and make another.
Food is love.
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Coconut Oil

Coconut Oil; the Healthiest Oil

‘Put a lime in the coconut and drink 'em bot' together

Put the lime in the coconut, then you'll feel better.

Put the lime in the coconut, drink 'em both down,

Put the lime in your coconut, and call me in the morning”
Harry Nilsson

For centuries, joyful health from eating coconut oil has been recognized by countless cultures of the world. However, there is a colossal, contrived misconception spread by ethically malnourished industries that coconut oil is dreadful for heart health. Poppycock!
Coconut oil is the ‘healthiest oil’ on God’s generous green earth. Ask the Okinawans. The ‘coconut oil-based’ Okinawa diet is the healthiest on earth. So, why did the fearful edible oil industry spend big money early last century defiling the central component of the world’s healthiest diet? Ask the US corn and soy oil industry and the FDA who insisted coconut oil was ’disastrous’ for human health yet Okinawan’s boast the highest percentage of centenarians anywhere on earth; a bold faced cock-and-bull story, my friends. Charming Okinawa’s have cooked with versatile coconut oil and rubbed it all over their body and hair to thwart a lengthy menu of diseases. Thrilling scientific findings concerning coconut oil reveal it’s a ‘healthy fat’ which heals your Holy Temple
Unlike ubiquitous animal or vegetable shortening and ‘Trans-fats’ / hydrogenated vegetable oils, the health benefits of coconut oil embrace hair care, skin care, stress relief, maintaining cholesterol levels, weight loss, increased immunity, proper digestion and metabolism, relief from kidney problems, heart diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes, HIV and cancer, dental care, and bone strength. Whew! The benefits are attributed to lauric acid, capric acid and caprylic acid, and its properties such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial and soothing.
Dig this: Consumers of coconut oil and its milk have the longest disability-free life expectancy in the world. Okinawa boasts the highest percentage of centenarians anywhere. Heart disease rates are low: 80% fewer heart attacks than Americans and Okinawa’s who have heart attacks are more likely to survive. Breast and prostate cancer and obesity are rarely heard of among the older Okinawan population, as is smoking tobacco. Over the last decade, the gentle, peaceful inhabitants are becoming sicklier and increasingly obese as the slimy ooze of McDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut slither onto their unspoiled shores.
Special triglyceride species and some non-triglyceride species identified in coconut and palm oil have physiologic properties that differ from most saturated fats. In 1988, N.W. Istfan of Harvard University Medical School's Nutrition Coordinating Center, vindicated coconut oil; "For the U.S. consumer, the use of coconut oil does not increase the role of heart disease." Coconut oil is rich in medium-chain triglycerides which provide an immediate source of fuel and energy, enabling the holy temple to metabolize fat efficiently. This feature helps dieters, athletes, individuals who have difficulty digesting fat, and those with impaired immune systems. Unlike some saturated fats, coconut oil does not raise cholesterol. How cool is that?
Ever wondered why Pacific Islanders skin and hair are so beautiful? Coconut oil absorbs easily and keeps your skin soft, not greasy and helps control dandruff. Within days it will moisturize and sooth chronic skin inflammation. When Sandi and I began to apply it to our skin, redness, dark spots and rashes disappeared within a week. Isn’t nature cool? Apply some of the oil to your hair, leave it on for an hour, then rinse.
Coconut oils powerful antioxidant properties prevent your skin from sagging; eliminate wrinkles, age spots and skin cancer caused by the sun’s harmful rays. It’s a common ingredient of many suntan lotions. Historic evidence strengthens recent findings about tropical oils. Many groups of people, throughout the world, have thrived on these oils in their daily diets, without experiencing negative health effects. Read labels. If the coconut or palm oil is corrupted by ‘hydrogenation’, gently put it down and slowly back away.
Now go rub some all over your body, bake a cake then whip up some stir-fry veggies. It’s your birthright to feel healthy, energetic and to know the truth.
My only complaint? Each time I give Sandi a loving hug, she squirts out of my arms.

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